A Shot in the Dark
by Rachel500
Summary: Vala comforts Sam after the events of Company of Thieves. Written for the Women of the Gate ficathon SamVala friendship.


Stargate SG1 is somebody else's, probably MGM/Gekko Corp/Sci-fi, and I freely admit that whoever's it is, I'm borrowing their show and they retain all rights, etc

**Author's Note:** This was written for the recent Women of the Gate ficathon and the prompt was 'Company of Thieves: Sam and Vala discuss Sam's experiences while captive to the Lucien alliance on the ship.' I took this to mean that Sam and Vala discussed Sam's experiences as a captive to the Lucien Alliance but didn't need to be on the ship when they had the conversation. Thanks to chelle for the beta – all remaining errors are mine! This is a TAG to Company of Thieves and contains spoilers for Stargate episodes up to and including Company of Thieves. It is a gen fic with much angst.

**A Shot in the Dark**

She was tired. Too tired. Her head pounded; her body ached deep down to the bone; a faint tremor ran through her muscles. It was a warning. Lieutenant Colonel Samantha Carter ignored it and held it together; her spine straight and her hands steady as she slipped her jacket back on. Her muscles protested, a burning sensation ran across her back, just enough to make her grimace. She hid her discomfort before it could garner the attention of the Amerasian doctor in front of her.

'Well, although you took a nasty knock to the head, the MRI came back clean,' Doctor Carolyn Lam glanced up from her folder to look at Sam clinically, 'and you have some pretty impressive bruises but I would say you mainly need to rest.'

Sam nodded. The doctor wouldn't get an argument from her; she was ready to admit she was exhausted. 'Are we done?' She asked, a sharp edge creeping in and giving away just how tired she was.

Carolyn seemingly ignored the snap in Sam's voice and nodded. 'We're done. I'm restricting you to light duties for the next couple of days.' Her gaze dropped as she started to make a note in her folder. 'Colonel, I'd like to recommend that you talk to the new resident psychiatrist about your hostage experience.'

'There's nothing to talk about.' Sam said, fighting to keep her voice even.

Carolyn looked up her dark eyes scouring Sam's intently. The two of them stared at each other in a silent battle of wills. The sound of a throat being cleared in the doorway had them both turning to look.

A young nurse waved a hand at the doctor nervously. 'Doctor Patrick asked me to get you, Doctor Lam. SG6 seem to have an unusual rash and he'd like your opinion.'

'I'll be right there.' Carolyn pocketed her pen and snapped the folder she held shut. 'Get some rest, Colonel.' She ordered.

Sam watched her leave and slumped against the infirmary bed tiredly. Her mind drifted to the original CMO of the SGC, Janet Fraiser. Tears pricked her eyes as a wave of sadness engulfed her. Janet would never have let her get away with her refusal to talk so easily, Sam considered ruefully. Carolyn was a great doctor but she lacked the warmth that Janet had exuded in spades. Sam hugged herself unconsciously, missing Janet fiercely and wishing her friend would somehow come back from the dead to comfort her. She wiped the moisture from her eyes and shook her head. She was tired.

She pushed off the bed and headed out of the infirmary. She focused on putting one foot in front of the other through the corridors to the elevator. She was thankful when it opened promptly and that it was empty. She really didn't feel in the mood to talk to anyone. She pushed the button and leaned against the wall, closing her eyes. The elevator slid to a halt and the tiny jolt jerked Sam back into wakefulness; her eyes snapped open. She forced her body to move.

One more corridor.

One more door.

One more step.

Her hand closed around the door knob and she shoved the door to her personal quarters open, almost stumbling inside. Sam closed it behind her and looked longingly at the bed. She sighed and snapped on the light. She undressed, dumping the BDU and her underwear into the laundry bag. She stood naked in the room and stared at the purple bruises that mottled her skin. At the imprint of fingers on her upper arms from rough handling by the Lucien Alliance guards; the angry mark of fabric burn across her chest when Anateo had grabbed her. A shiver had her moving suddenly. She reached hurriedly into the dresser for her pyjamas.

A few moments later, she was dressed and the room plunged into darkness. She climbed under the sheets with a grateful sigh. She closed her eyes.

The loud, cruel crack of a gun shot echoed through her head.

Sam bolted upright, her heart pounding. She sat up and pulled her knees up to her chest. She wrapped her arms around her legs and interlaced her fingers. She bit her lip from crying out as she rested her forehead on her knees and fought for breath; her chest suddenly tight against the tears she wouldn't cry.

She had managed to keep her mind occupied during the flight back on the Odyssey. The ship was badly damaged and there was enough work to keep her busy. Her friends had been concerned about her but she had been able to side-step them. She had directed Cameron Mitchell to the bridge of the Odyssey while she retreated to the engine room. She had stopped briefly to check on Teal'c who had been tortured and beaten by the Lucien Alliance much worse than she. She had artfully dodged the Jaffa's concern for her and had convinced Daniel Jackson to stay with him. Only Vala Mal Doran had remained by Sam's side.

Sam hadn't minded the former thief's presence. The other woman had made no attempt to make her talk about the ambush or what had happened to Sam while the Lucien Alliance had held the crew hostage. Vala had seemed happy to prattle on about anything and everything; the work, the technology, Daniel. Sam had let it all wash over her, grateful that Vala's constant chatter provided background noise that made sure her mind didn't wander back to what had happened; drowned out the sound of the shot that had killed the Odyssey commander, Colonel Paul Emerson.

But there was nothing to drown out the sound in the silence of her room. The dark didn't prevent her eyes from seeing Emerson's face in the brief moment when he had registered he was shot; that he was dead. The surprise and stunned disbelief; the way he had looked at her for an instant before he had slumped to the floor.

Tears leaked out and ran down her face. It hadn't been enough that they'd shot him once; Anateo's chief lackey had fired again and again at Emerson's body. Sam's body started shaking; she was so cold; so cold. The smell of death returned to her full force; acrid and stank. Her stomach roiled in protest and bile filled the back of her throat. Grief rushed through her along with the bitter regret that she had been unable to stop the senseless death of a good man.

Sam covered her face with her hands as the first sob escaped her.

o-O-o

Vala flipped through the magazine absently. She was sprawled across her bed; lying on her stomach. She had dressed for bed in her favourite lilac satin nightdress; spaghetti straps giving way to a swath of material that made her feel attractive and sexy. It was so much a part of her armour that she never gave it a second thought. She reached the end of the magazine and tossed it on the floor. She stretched languidly.

She was restless, unable to sleep. Her lips pursed as she considered the reason why; Samantha Carter, astrophysicist and all-round genius blonde. Vala had never made friends with women easily even as a child. She had been too precocious; too interested in climbing trees and playing in the fields; too interested in getting into trouble. Her friends had been a gang of boys. There had been no girl friends to turn to with secrets and when she had hit adolescence, she had become a rival to the village girls.

Vala's lips twisted at the memory. She had admittedly made it easy for the girls to hate her. She had been free and easy with her affections, sharing her body with any boy who showed her interest. Perhaps trying to satisfy a craving to be loved given the way her father had abandoned her…Vala pushed the thought away; she was not thinking about him.

She was supposed to be thinking of Sam, Vala reminded herself, tapping her fingers against the gold coverlet. Against all expectations, the other woman had befriended her; small gestures of help and support whether helping her with her uniform, or letting her know that she was there to listen if Vala needed a friendly ear. Oh, she knew she annoyed the Air Force officer at times; they had completely different approaches but somehow they had found common ground. Not their shared past as a host; that was too raw for either of them to deal with but Vala had been fascinated to realise the blonde woman had a wicked sense of humour, a penchant for reckless speed and underneath all her many talents, Sam was as much a survivor as Vala. They had also found a shared bond of female comradeship in a team of men, Vala thought with amusement. Boys would be boys, after all, and there had been a few moments where Vala had looked over at Sam to find her looking back with the same instinctive female understanding about the boys' behaviour.

Still, Vala had been surprised to find that she truly considered Sam a friend; had been worried when the message had come in from the Odyssey of the attack. She sobered as the memory of listening to the transponder recording and hearing the shot ran through her mind. She had seen the horror she had felt in Daniel's eyes; the knowledge that they had no idea if it had been Emerson or Sam who had been shot and only the desperate hope that it hadn't been their team-mate. It had been such a relief to get to the Odyssey and to find Sam in one piece.

Vala frowned. After the initial meeting with Sam, she and Daniel had been escorted to the hold. Marks, the young Major who operated the flight controls of the Odyssey had filled them in on what had happened; how the Lucien Alliance had tricked them into the ambush, how Sam had been taken along with Emerson; how Sam had returned hours later…

_'She was upset,' Marks swallowed hard, 'crying.'_

_Daniel's face creased with concern. 'Did she say…' he gestured at the young officer to answer the unfinished question._

_'It was only for a few moments, Doctor Jackson.' Marks replied. 'Then, she just pulled it together and told us we'd get out of this somehow but that they had shot Colonel Emerson.'_

_'And that was why she was upset.' Vala said confidently, hoping she was right._

_Marks looked at her, his youthful face serious. 'I don't know. She was gone a long time.'_

Daniel had tried talking to Sam after their team-mate had filled them in on her plan. Sam had cut them both off…

_'I'm fine.' Sam insisted. She looked around anxiously, obviously checking to see if they were being watched – which they were._

_'Sam.' Daniel's eyes gleamed with concern. 'If anything happened…'_

_'What happened was that Colonel Emerson was shot.' Sam snapped. She waved a hand at them. 'We don't have time for this. We have to focus on the plan.'_

_'Sam…'_

_'Daniel.' Sam's blue eyes flashed a warning._

_The hold doors opened and their time was up. Sam sent them a final look over her shoulder and Vala nodded. They would follow her plan._

Vala has seen how Sam had continued to subtly close down any attempt by Daniel to talk about the hours she had spent alone with the Lucien Alliance eventually sending him to sit with Teal'c in the infirmary. Vala hadn't made any attempt. She had simply stayed with her friend and let Sam deal with it in her own way – by burying herself in work – until the Odyssey had established orbit around Earth. Sam had beamed down with them to report to General Landry after they had handed over the ship to a repair crew. Sam had held it together during the debriefing; reporting dispassionately to their CO on the events of the mission. Landry had ordered her to the infirmary and Sam had waved any help or companionship away, claiming she was going to find a bed as soon as her medical check was over.

She would just stop by and check on Sam, Vala decided suddenly. She slipped off the bed and reached for her robe. She shrugged it on and pushed her feet into matching lilac fluffy slippers. She tied the robe and padded out of her room. Sam's room was just down the corridor. She sneaked down the unfriendly grey tunnel and hovered outside Sam's door. The faint sound of sobs drifted through the heavy wood.

Vala frowned. She didn't hesitate; she knocked softly but there was no reply. She tried the door knob; it moved under her hand and she breathed a sigh of relief that Sam had forgotten to engage the lock. She pushed open the door and made her way inside stealthily, closing the door with a soft click.

Her eyes fell on Sam who was crying helplessly; her face buried in her hands. Vala didn't even think Sam knew she had entered the room. Vala walked over to the bed slowly.

Sam didn't move.

Vala hesitated, unsure what to do. She had never been a friend to anyone; she wasn't Daniel; she didn't know what to say. She straightened her shoulders and did what she always did: she went with her gut.

She climbed on the bed behind Sam and gently slid her arms around the other woman, her arms over Sam's collarbone. She felt Sam stiffen automatically in reaction but continued to simply hold her softly. Suddenly, Sam crumpled against her. Vala let out a shaky breath and tried not to flinch as Sam's hands fastened around one of her arms and held on as though for dear life. She felt the damp moisture of Sam's tears against her skin. She still had no idea what to say, Vala realised a little panicked; she could only hope that just being there was enough.

o-O-o

Sam drew a trembling breath as her tears subsided. She swiped at her sore, gritty eyes and rubbed the moisture way as she pulled away from the woman holding her. She sniffed and inelegantly used the back of her hand to wipe her nose. She shifted away from Vala and reached for the light on the bedside table. She found the tissue box and wiped her hand. She didn't acknowledge Vala at all and the former thief stayed where she was as Sam collected her composure. Sam sat back against the pillows and Vala moved to sit beside, tucking her legs underneath her. Sam blew her nose and crumpled the tissue in her hand.

'He was a good man.' Sam said; her words dropped into the quiet like shockwaves. She didn't even stop to think whether Vala would understand she meant Emerson.

'He was.' Vala agreed.

'He didn't deserve to die. Not like that.' Sam angrily tossed the tissue across the room and into a waste-basket. 'He was…' her voice broke again and she bit her lip hard to gain control again. 'He was trying to protect me; the crew.' She continued.

'That was his job.' Vala pointed out. 'You were his responsibility.'

Sam nodded and rubbed her nose. She stared up at the ceiling. 'You know he saved us so many times. The first time we ever met him he pulled us out of a situation with the Lucien Alliance.' She remembered the mission clearly; Mitchell and his idiotic idea to pretend to make a deal with them. It had gone South so fast but they would have made it out though if it hadn't been for Ba'al stealing the gate.

The thought of the Goa'uld had her mouth twisting. Only a couple of months before, Ba'al had held her hostage in the SGC; she had handed him the gate addresses to stall for time not thinking he had a way off the base. She had been wrong. She wrenched her mind back to the ship. For the second time, she'd found herself hostage and trying to find a way to stall her captors.

'I couldn't follow his order.' Sam murmured, her head falling back against the wall.

Vala tucked a long tress of her brunette hair behind her ear. 'You did what you had to do.' The lack of judgement warmed Sam and made her wonder again at everything the newest member of their team had had to do in the past to survive.

'It was his last order and I disobeyed it.' Sam sighed tiredly. 'I couldn't think of another way to stall and Anateo…' she stopped abruptly.

'Sam,' Vala took a deep breath, 'did Anateo hurt you?'

Sam shook her head. 'No.' She met Vala's worried gaze directly. 'Not the way you mean.' Her lips twisted. 'Threatened it. Made the usual lame come-ons.'

'Hmmm. He probably couldn't have got it up anyway. He looked like the type who would have an erectile dysfunction of some kind.' Vala said authoratively. 'You know; thin, pasty and obviously over-compensating with the size of his…uh, ship.'

Sam stared at her for a second and burst out laughing. They both ignored the slight edge of hysteria to her guffaws. She caught her breath and shook her head. 'Thank you.'

Vala patted her hand and gave a small, pleased smile. 'Do you want to talk about what happened?'

'Nothing happened.' Sam sighed tiredly. 'After he shot Emerson, I didn't think I had a choice. I figured I had to remove the transponder. I kept working on it for as long as I could without making them suspicious.'

'Good thinking.'

'Stupid.' Sam gestured at her. 'He used it to bait a trap for you guys.'

Vala shrugged. 'Daniel was right; it was part of the plan. We knew it was probably a trap.'

'You meant to get captured?' Sam checked, frowning.

'Well, _meant_ is such a strong word,' Vala admitted, 'we may have considered it somewhat of a possibility.'

Sam's lips lifted briefly before her smile fell away again. Her fingers worried at the edge of her pyjama top. 'He kept Emerson's body right next to me the whole time.' Anateo had used the corpse as a morbid reminder for her to behave; that a wrong move would mean the senseless death of another crew member. Hours of standing near him; the smell of death filling her nostrils as his body warmed and the blood and urine turned stale.

'That's why you were upset when they returned you to the hold.' Vala commented quietly.

'I've seen death before.' Sam said. 'I've seen it on the battlefield and with the Supergate, there was so much destruction all around me.' She pressed her lips together. 'But this was different. I couldn't…when I got back to the hold. I just needed a minute, just to…I don't know,' she glanced at Vala, 'deal with it, I guess.'

'And after that, they just had you working on the ship.' Vala guessed.

'I think Anateo thought he'd intimidated me.'

'Foolish man.' Vala said, her expression clearly giving away that she believed Anateo had been an idiot.

Sam looked at her quizzically. 'Why did you beam him into space?'

Vala's eyes widened and she shifted position a little as though the question had discomforted her. 'Well, you said yourself that the beaming technology wasn't working properly.'

'It wasn't that broken.' Sam said firmly.

Vala shrugged easily. 'He'd just threatened to kill a friend of mine.' She paused, her gaze holding Sam's. 'I don't have many so…'

Sam's eyes widened a little as she registered that Vala considered her a friend. She had never questioned whether she considered Vala a friend, Sam realised with some amusement; she'd just accepted that the other woman was a team-mate but she had to admit somehow, somewhere Vala had slipped over that invisible line between team-mate and friend.

Vala yawned suddenly, her whole being stretching as her mouth opened to get air and her body stretched to accommodate it. The former thief smiled ruefully. 'I should head back to my own room.'

Sam nodded. 'Thank you. For checking on me.'

Vala gave another smile and slipped off the bed. She was half-way to the door when she suddenly turned and sprinted back to Sam, engulfing her in a tight hug for a few minutes before she let go and hurried out of the room.

Sam watched Vala go bemused. She shook her head and a yawn caught her by surprise. She settled back into the bed and snapped the light off. The dark surrounded her but she didn't mind it as she closed her eyes. No shot disturbed the silence; the only scent was the faint aroma of Vala's exotic perfume; there was only the warm feeling left by her friend's comfort. Her body gave up on consciousness and everything faded. She could sleep now.

The End


End file.
